dwarves

Dwarves

Descendants of men from the volcanic tropics of Kystriland, the dwarves are hardy, creative, and strong-willed. Grand kingdoms carved in molten mountains and complex underground communities dot the beaches found throughout the island chain. The dwarves are a courageous people, known to stand their ground against overwhelming opposition. They make a point to keep their word and take great pride (overwhelming even, at times) in their ancient heritage.

A dwarf is steady by nature. Because dwarves live long lives, they are often slow in relationships with other men which they expect to outlive. Natural skeptics, they may be quick to judge others lacking strong morality or clear foundation. A wise dwarf knows that their greatest allies are ones with the temperament to hold to their virtues no matter the cost.

The tallest of the Kystriland men stand just above 4 feet tall, but are sturdy enough in stance to weigh between 200 to 300 pounds or more. Dwarves have thick hair all over their bodies, with the burliest men growing long, extravagant beards in brown, black, red, and blonde shades. Dwarves are young until they reach the age of 50, then typically live for 300-400 years, maintaining strong memories their whole lives. The predominant dwarven people groups, the Kaikone and the Guphati, have buried feud after feud for thousands of years. The two nations shift between times of peace and times of bloody rivalry. Dwarves of all kinds are welcome in most of modern-day Kystriland, though many rural villages still cling to their traditions.

The classic Kystriland sagas are like the rising and falling tides. During one of the ancient Kaikone-Guphati wars, a mixed flotilla of refugees fled north beyond the charts and never returned. Later on, their descendants, who came to be known as the Vailoko of far Andasena, would remain strangers to their own kin for hundreds and hundreds of years. Meanwhile, on Azergad’s mainland frontier, the telekinetic Palcha ruled the west of Bisengal for nearly four centuries before rival peoples broke their empire, leaving only the fortified valley kingdom that endures today. Through every war and collapse, the ports never stop trading; as Kystri-men say, “though the fighting comes and goes, the gold shall always flow”.

Kystriland’s mountains stretch high yet deep underground and are filled with precious materials such as gold, pik (also known as white gold), and betharyl (a high-quality material used for ornate equipment). Most of the world’s trade involves materials and logistics that flow through this region. Dwarves are generally fascinated by the endless possibilities of metals and jewelry attainable through the forge. The desire of impressive wealth and luxury leads most dwarves to a life of seafaring, immersing themselves across a variety of cultures and climates. A young dwarf who leaves Kalindor’s docks for the open road is likely hunting their fortune.

Traits

• Ability Score Increase: +2 Constitution
• Age: Dwarves mature at a similar rate to humans, but they’re considered young until they reach the age of 50. On average, they live about 350 years.
• Size: Dwarves stand between 4 and 5 feet tall. Your size is Medium.
• Speed: Your base walking speed is 25 feet. Your speed is not reduced by wearing heavy armor.
• Darkvision: Accustomed to life underground, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
• Dwarven Resilience: You have advantage on saving throws against poison, and you have resistance against poison damage.
• Dwarven Training: You have proficiency with the handaxe, light hammer, warhammer, and spear. Additionally, you gain proficiency with the artisan’s tools of your choice: smith’s tools, carpenter’s tools, brewer’s supplies, or mason’s tools. These are the tools every dwarf has grown up using in one form or another.
• Stonecunning: A people who carve their kingdoms from living volcanic rock learn to read what others have carved before them. Whenever you make an Intelligence (History) check related to the origin of stonework or metalwork, you are considered proficient in the History skill and add double your proficiency bonus to the check, instead of your normal proficiency bonus.
• Languages: You can speak, read, and write Common and Kystri. Kystri is a mixture of various dwarven languages with added Common words, and is primarily a trade language taught to educated Dwarves. Kystri is full of hard consonants and sounds, which often spill over into whatever other language the dwarf might speak.

Guphati

The Guphati dwarves inhabit the expansive mountain chains of the greater Kystrilands. Guphati dwarves are known to be full of grandeur and ambition with their pursuits. Guphati architects find satisfaction from constantly outdoing themselves, designing and crating increasingly elaborate palaces, castles, ampitheaters and civilian systems. The Kaikone consider their behavior predictable and dull, remarking that their mountain cousins are somewhat obtuse and take life too seriously. Living amongst sheer cliffs and smoldering heat, Guphati dwarves are particularly athletic and are strong climbers. Guphati dwarves have light tan to gray skin, brown, red, or black hair, and black, red, or golden eyes.

• Ability Score Increase: +1 Strength
• Language: You can speak Guphati, a distinct language with many long words and phrases. Though common among the Guphati, it is rarely spoken by foreigners or in foreign lands.
• Summit Lore: Always add your proficiency bonus when you make a Nature check recalling information related to underground or mountainous terrain.
• Athletic: You are proficient in Athletics, and you have advantage on checks made to climb rocky surfaces.

Kaikone

As a Kaikone dwarf, you’ll be quick-witted, brave, and naturally charming. The Kaikone dwarves are a creative people known for their shipwrights and survival instincts. Many are as well-read as they are lighthearted, enjoying deep philosophical talks in-between their bustling lifestyles. These dwarves of the coast are just as excellent traders and leaders as they are swimmers. Due to their lifestyles, Guphati dwarves stereotypically have difficulty taking the Kaikone seriously. Kaikone dwarves have darker tan to red skin tones. Their hair is thick and usually straight, tending toward lighter colors like light browns, light reds, and at its lightest a dirty or strawberry blonde. Their eyes can be bright, tropical shades of blue or green.

• Ability Score Increase: +1 Charisma
• Language: You can speak Kaikone. The Kaikone language is known to be loud and light in tone. It is the origin of many widely-used trading terms in both standard Kystri and Common.
• Life on Water: You are proficient in Athletics, and you have advantage on Athletics checks made to swim or stay afloat.
• Silver Tongue: You are proficient in Persuasion. Additionally, a life among traders has taught you one extra language of your choice.

Solkota

Hidden deep within the tropical rainforests of the outer Kystriland islands, the Solkota dwarves have adapted to life under the jungle canopy. These dwarves are known to hunt often and are surprisingly agile among Kystri-kind. The Solkota are famous for their ancient temples and ornate tools of magical quality, commonly featuring the betharyl that exists in nearby offshore deposits. They are master botanists and alchemists, using the jungle’s abundant plant life to create potent medicines and poisons.

• Ability Score Increase: +1 Wisdom
• Language: You can speak Solkota, a unique language with an ancient script. It is quite an isolated language and notoriously difficult to learn.
• Jungle Adaptation: You have advantage on saving throws against diseases, and you are proficient with the poisoner’s kit.
• Botanical Knowledge: You have proficiency with the herbalism kit. You can identify nearly any plant of tropical origin and know its general properties.
• Canopy Dweller: You have a climbing speed of 25 feet when climbing trees.

Palcha

Hidden within the secluded Palcha Valley on Bisengal’s western frontier live the secluded Palcha people. Once rulers of a mighty empire that stretched across the western reaches of Bisengal and into the foothills of the Marram Mountains, the Palcha wielded their innate telekinetic magic to dominate neighboring peoples for nearly four centuries. Today, they continue to live in small, fortified communities carved into the valley’s steep walls, maintaining a warrior culture built around discipline, mental focus, and the mastery of their hereditary force magic. Outside contact is rare, as many Palcha continue to view the outside world with pity and immense distrust. However, the Palcha diaspora persists in various pockets, particularly around the regions once ruled by their ancestors.

It’s worth noting that the Palcha empire did not fall to armies alone. Partway through the long invasions that began in the middle of the 2nd Generation, those who had grown sick of the conquest defected, sitting with Yaz’togal engineers until the two of them had worked out how the Palcha’s prized force magic could be written down and taught to anyone patient enough to learn it. What they built is the Bek’Tan discipline, and it alone took the western reaches back one fortress at a time until the last Palcha holding outside the valley fell in 812 2G. Palcha keepers still inscribe the clan names of those defectors in full, so that no child grows up without knowing them. Those carrying these names are not welcome in traditional Palcha society.

Even today, the valley’s grudge does the diaspora no favors abroad, where a dwarf who lifts a stone without touching it risks portraying the “conqueror’s sign” once again. Some of the scattered carry the gift untrained and unwanted, and others descend from the defectors and have no valley left to return to. A Palcha far from home typically keeps to himself, for good reasons.

• Ability Score Increase: +1 Intelligence
• Language: You can speak Palcha, a dialect so closely related to Kaikone that speakers of one can understand the other with minimal difficulty. However, Palcha incorporates many archaic terms and formal constructions that mark the speaker as distinctly foreign to most Kaikone ears.
• Telekinetic Legacy: You know the mage hand cantrip. Your telekinesis is hereditary force rather than conjured magic: the hand is invisible, and it can lift a number of pounds equal to 10 times your proficiency bonus. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for this spell.
• Disciplined Mind: You have proficiency in one mental skill of your choice: Arcana, History, Investigation, or Insight.

Vailoko

Far northwest of the Kystriland arc, across some of the most treacherous seas in the world, lies the island of Andasena. The Senawara, the island’s great lake system, is scattered with small island chains and joined by rivers that plunge over towering waterfalls. The Vailoko descend from Guphati and Kaikone refugees who fled an ancient war and never returned. Few in number and visited by almost no one, they are known to the wider world mostly through old records and incomplete sailors’ tales which fill Andasena with monstrous beasts. The Vailoko thrive in the island’s hot summers and deep-snow winters alike, spending the buried months in proudly carved snow tunnels and shelters. The shortest and broadest-chested of all dwarves, the Vailoko have the darkest complexions of Kystri-kind. Yet, every Vailoko grows thick, tightly curled hair in white, pale blonde, or light red shades. Beards are grown long through the winter and shaved off when the snow melts (an annual festival). Their eyes come in lake-gray, ice-blue, and light brown tones.

• Ability Score Increase: +1 Dexterity
• Language: Unlike other dwarves, you do not know Kystri, as your people departed before it existed. Instead, you can speak, read, and write Vailoko, an archaic blend of old Guphati and old Kaikone with its own script. Speakers of either language can puzzle out simple Vailoko, and vice versa.
• Falls Climber: You have a climbing speed of 25 feet, and climbing on wet, icy, or slippery surfaces does not cost you extra movement.
• Call of Waterfalls: You know the whistled register of Vailoko, developed to carry speech over the roar of the falls. You can convey simple messages to any other speaker of Vailoko within 600 feet, and the whistle cuts through thundering water, wind, and storm. Listeners who do not know the language hear only birdsong. You can teach the basic calls to a willing creature over a week of daily practice, allowing it to exchange simple messages with you in this way.
• Snow Delver: You can dig simple tunnels through snow at half your walking speed, and you always know how deep you are beneath the surface of snow.